Did the CIA sell drugs in the US?

Question

According to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Gary Webb in his controversial article series The Dark Alliance

For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to an arm of the contra guerrillas of Nicaragua run by the Central Intelligence Agency, the San Jose Mercury News has found.

Essentially the claim states that the CIA sold drugs in California to generate untraceable funds to transfer to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. The claims were taken seriously enough that in 1996 CIA director John Deutch traveled to LA to confront the claims, but the crowd he addressed remained unconvinced.

Has the CIA sold drugs in the US to fund rebels or to counter the rising influence of gangs?

Is there any evidence to support the claims, or the CIA's position?

Answer 1

There is plenty of circumstantial evidence that this is the case.

1. With respect to the Contra affair, the Kerry inquest reached the conclusion that there was some involvement, directly by CIA or by companies employed by CIA (full text);

2. The CIA itself does not deny many of the allegations (link);

3. There have been many other examples of the CIA dealing drugs to generate covert funds or actually helping the drug trade to foster some higher purpose (well sourced Wikipedia page).

Of course, people tend to infer a lot from little facts, and you are asking about a specific interpretation of the facts. We can't really address the motivations and dietrology of those theories skeptically, and the general principle is that the burden of proof is on who makes the allegations ("innocent until proven guilty!").

In other words, I cannot find any direct proof that CIA used the profits to fight gangs, although there is clear proof that the CIA was involved multiple times in drug trafficking.

Answer 2

Here is the most damning evidence yet:

1. Retired FBI agent Ted Gunderson tells all (YouTube)

2. Michael Ruppert confronts CIA director about Drug Laundering. (YouTube)